Someone mentioned driving the Oregon and California coast. I second that and have done it or parts of it multiple times. Where else can you legally drive the Family Truckster on the beach and even into the surf one day and then drive it through a tree the next?

Oregon (Washington too) has many areas that are open for driving, many passable by pretty ordinary cars. If you find the right spot you can even film your personal car commercial of it bashing through the surf. Or as I managed to do with the family Tempo 4wd, years ago before digital imaging, find a nice firm rock/sand bar in a semi protected cove with gentle waves. I pulled the car out there and snapped a number of pics and did a little video of the waves “crashing” around and surrounding it. Only let it go through 2 cycles of the waves then got it out of there quick.

Another year we went a little farther south to California and snapped pictures and video of driving the family minivan through a tree. Just 2 of the many great photo ops and fun to have along the OR and CA coast.

One of the biggest must see things in the west in my opinion is Yellowstone. The thermal features are mesmerizing and the diversity in terrain and wildlife are incredible. Great picture op get the wife to stand in front of Old faithful or any other geyser and snap the pic as it erupts for a nice picture of her “letting off steam” or “blowing her top”. Just don’t show it to her until you get home.

In the Southwest I’d have to suggest Bryce Canyon in Utah. The Grand Canyon gets all the press and most of the tourists, but Bryce Canyon in many ways is more beautiful and is an awesome display of the power of nature with out the massive crowds.

Near there on the road to the park there is another great picture op. A Trabant whose owner had it shipped to the US for his great American road trip and now it’s parked outside of the Ruby’s Inn Gift Shop on the road the Bryce Canyon National Park.

So if a crazy German can do it in a Trabant, so can you!!!

Now it’s your turn. Do you want to take your Chevy to Bel Air or Malibu? Your Dodge to Aspen? Your Toyota to Tacoma? Or maybe you are one of our foreign readers, we don’t want you to feel left out. So anywhere you can go by car in the world is fair game, doesn’t matter if it’s a National Park, an unusual museum, or even just a nice stretch of road.

Don’t forget to send those questions to CurbsideClueless@Gmail.com

46 Comments

Nice piece reminding me of lots of familiar territory. Here’s my little piece of advice: do it in September or October, if possible. Much less crowded, and especially on the coast, the weather is much better. Ironically, June, July and sometimes August are literally the worst moths for the pacific coast, because of incessant fog, and in the northern areas (Oregon) wind. No fun going to the beach to freeze and have the sand whipped in your face.

Come September, that’s almost totally gone, and the warmest days of the year at the beach are always that month. And if it’s not raining, the beach can be very pleasant all winter, but that’s a bit hit-an-miss.

The inland areas of the West are of course also prone to have the opposite problem in the summer: too hot. Again, by September, and especially into October, that challenge is gone.

I’d like to take a northern trip from Maine to Washington, maybe use parts of 90/94 but I really prefer back roads and forgotten highways. This is the type of trip where an Atlas and folding maps would take precedence over GPS devices.
A Lincoln highway trip sounds like it could be interesting too.

The entire Oregon coast is open to public access, because it was declared a state highway in 1913. Then they established state parks about every ten miles. Finally in ’67 Tom McCall built on that with the Beach Bill, guaranteeing “free and uninterrupted use of the beaches.”

You can’t just drive down the whole coast of course, but there are short stretches in every town of any size, and longer stretches at some of the parks. The Oregon Dunes go for a hundred miles, and sections are set aside for sandrails.

I finally drove on the beach for the first time a few years back. Whiskey Run, which is a few miles north of Bandon. Had a few friends in my 89 Four Runner and went cruising. I had no idea raccoons night-fished in the shallow waters til I saw them scurrying across the sand in front of me. Had to swerve several times to avoid them.

We usually go down to Pacific City by Haystack rock, there are two access points there. Bob Struab park is a big long strait run with very few cars because it’s hard to get onto due to soft sand. In tomorrows post there is some video of us messing around on that beach.

I’ve driven and camped up and down some of the Oregon coast. To me it’s the best stretch of public coastline on the west coast. Washington’s beaches are rocky, but the Oregon dunes are amazing and public. Not as warm as California but also not as polluted or crowded. Nehalem Bay, Oswald West and Ecola State Parks are nice for camping and hiking. My late father had an old condo at Rockaway Beach. That was a fun destination too. Oregon’s public coastline is one of the greatest things in the world.

I’ve always thought US 20 would be a great trip. One end is the Oregon Coast in Newport, the other end is Fenway Park in Boston. In between it goes through Yellowstone and Chicago, and gets pretty close to Detroit (Henry Ford museum) and Cooperstown, NY (Baseball Hall of Fame).

US 20 through Nebraska is actually a pretty awesome drive too. In the east you’re definitely in the Midwest corn belt. By the time you reach the western end in Chadron you’re definitely in cattle country. And all along the way there are nice curves in the road and rolling hills. It’s way better than crossing Nebraska on I-80. Another Good route through Nebraska is NE 2 through the middle of the state.

If you’re on US 20 through Nebraska, near Chadron, take US 385 south to Alliance, then turn east, to the old 385, which is now Nebraska 87. Two or three miles north of Alliance, between Madison and Logan roads, is a roadside attraction called Carhenge. It is a duplicate of Stonehenge created out of buried cars. Worth a quick stop for lovers of old iron.

When I was a kid I went on a church road trip from Omaha where we lived at the time to Estes Park, CO. I don’t remember the highway but we drove past Chimney Rock. We took the youth group leader’s Chevy van. It was a blast.

Me and my roommate took an epic trip last year which included Bryce Canyon. We camped out one night and took it in the next day. Anyway, while we were lounging and drinking by the fire, a geenormous RV pulled in to the spot next to us. Great, a herd of wheezing old people with yap dogs. Turned out to be a young-ish Danish couple with three skinny blond kids.

The quite tall sire came over and introduced himself. He had spotted our Oregon plates and asked about our origins. I mentioned Eugene, and he lit up and said that they had spent three years in Corvallis for his job in agriculture. Since going back to Europe they made yearly trips to the states for vacation. I asked him what I should go see in Europe should I find myself there. Without more than a slight pause, he said “Nothing. Stay here. This is better than anything in Europe.”

Europe is great for its cities, which are unlike anything we have here. I knew that, but our trip to Paris last year confirmed it.

But for touring around, especially in an RV, and seeing open spaces and landscape, the US is hard to beat. And Europeans love it just for that reason. As much as I love Europe, I’m usually pretty glad to get home.

But then my older brother moved back to Austria last year, after fifty years, and he’s loving it. To each his own. But a change of scenery is always good.

Portland to Portland. In September. Is there anywhere in this country where that is not the best month?
Many possible detours along the way. Start each day with a coin toss – North or South. Left or right. This park or that park. You’ll never see the whole country in one trip, so just keep making notes as you go on where to go on your next trip, even if there may never be one.
Perfect bliss!

Thanks Mike PDX! I do know about the coin toss. Francis and Asa settled Portland, OR, and agreed to name the place for one of their hometowns. Unable to decide which, they tossed a coin. I don’t think Boston, OR sounds as good, do you? So glad that choice worked out the right way! So glad you picked up on that too, as that was really my inspiration for the suggested trip.

For those who want to get inland, we have made a couple of nice drives. One of them is the Nachez Trace Parkway, something over 400 miles of scenic parkway and part of the national park system, it runs from Nachez, MS to Nashville, TN. It has a fairly low speed limit and would be a fabulous trip with vintage iron.

A great northern destination is Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. This is a place where you could spend an easy 2 days, and maybe 3 or 4. The Village was Henry Ford’s pet project where he bought, moved and reassembled many buildings, some of them famous (Edison’s Menlo Park, NJ lab, for example) to recreate a prototypical turn-of-the-last-century small town. And the muesum is a gem.

Another very scenic drive is through the Hoosier National Forest in sourthern Indiana. Brown County, Indiana is a stunning place to drive when the fall colors are at their peak, usually early to mid October.

Finally, there are the remnants of old Route 66 “It winds from Chicago to L.A. . . . .” The highway itself was decommissioned a number of years ago, and parts of it must be traversed via interstate highway, but a pretty decent portion is being preserved as Historic Route 66. This is one of my personal desires. I have relatives in southern California, so a road trip on old 66 would be a great adventure. I travelled a lot of this one when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago. I just need the right car.

I’ve done bits of Route 66 in Arizona many years ago. The car our 83 T-bird 5.0. There were still a number of long since closed old gas station buildings along the route. Most at least had one or two pieces of vintage Iron a couple of lots were packed. Some had been fenced up but I kick myself every time I think about it that I didn’t stop and check at least one out and at least take a picture or two.

Car and Driver had “Top 10 Drives” in their January Issue for a while. I tried to drive them if they were nearby on trips and was never disappointed. You might look up some back issues if you can ignore their ‘special advertising sections’ that finally made me give up subscribing after 4 years. They actually called me and asked why I stopped!

Mid September, start at the northern most tip of Maine and follow fall down to South Carolina. Take about two months. Use my Town Car and hold up at good hotels when it is raining, Take our time, eat and drink well.

September, Mew Mexico. Take US 64 from Raton west across the state to Shiprock. Take a couple days. The terrain changes, from almost alpine near Taos, to beautiful aspens, to the Rio Grande gorge (a bridge not for those scared of heights!), to more typical desert. Then duck up into Colorado to Mesa Verde NP, and then maybe see Four Corners and Monument Valley. But really, US64 is the star.
A close second, in the south of the state, would be US 84, from Artesia (check the oil driller sculpture), to Cloudcroft (get the BBQ), down through Almogodro, and to White Sands.

Yes, Yellowstone is a must-see. Also in northern WY is US 14 across the Big Horn mountains. On the eastern side there are no foothills, so you can pull off and see about forever across the high plains.

Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Cedar Breaks are a great SW UT trilogy of parks. With more time, see Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, and Arches.

Drive almost any highway east from the central valley of CA through the foothills to the crest of the Sierras, then plunge down the eastern slope into the desert.

To get from CA to UT, take US 6/NV 25/US 93. Those are some empty roads. Going 70-75 mph you can drive a half hour without seeing another car. I drove that one with a friend from Japan, and he was just astounded with how unpopulated some parts of the U.S. are.

You need a good long drive on a modern two-lane highway through some mountains. The best I’ve found is WA 20 across the northern part of Washington. The last time I drove this one, a section was closed to repair a bridge or some such, and we were detoured on a dirt road through the hills. The good news was it was a well-maintained dirt road that was an absolute dream to drive. This one connects well with a visit to Glacier Park (Going to the Sun highway).

Another couple of great mountain drives are US 50 from Pueblo to Grand Junction, CO, and US 160 from Walsenburg to Cortez, CO (also passes right by Mesa Verde).

I’m from MI, so I’ll pimp for a drive that takes in views of the Great Lakes, either in the Upper Peninsula or the northern Lower Peninsula.

I’ve never done the whole thing, but I think a trip across Pennsylvania via US 22/US 322 would be great. You cross the Alleghenies and Appalachians, then go through Pennsylvania Dutch country.

These are my thoughts based on a lifetime of road trips. I’m not a small-town snob who thinks small-town America is the “real America”. Cities are just as real and just as American as small towns and farms, so no trip to the U.S. is complete without a stop in any of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Boston, Seattle, or Philadelphia. Having said that, there’s something about crossing the country on two-lane roads, driving through the towns, and seeing what goes on (County Fair! Pancake Breakfast to benefit the fire hall!).

Final tip for traveling though mid-America: when searching for a place to eat, the cafe with the most pickups parked in front of it has the best breakfasts and lunches in town.

Hwy 20 in Washington is called the North Cascades Scenic Byway. It is a beautiful drive. Last summer we drove that from on our trip from Snohomish to Bozeman. I wish I had been driving a sports car instead of a minivan, but the scenery is gorgeous.http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades

I want to do Route 66. I’ve done portions, I know the whole thing doesn’t exist anymore but I would love to do as much of the whole thing as possible and in an appropriate car like a big 60s luxury car. That would be my dream.

Even though it is a dead end route, I would highly suggest taking US-41 and M-26 in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. Beautiful views of the Lake, a tunnel of trees along US-41 in Keweenaw County, and stunning views of the Lake from both M-26 and Brockway Mountain Drive. Also, a fair amount of history in America’s first large metal mining district (copper – active from the 1840s until the 1960s).

Don’t forget US Hwy 1 all the way to Key West. And the Pacific Coast Highway. If you get up to South Dakota, there are a number of scenic highways through the Black Hills National Forest, Custer State Park, and around Mt. Rushmore. I recommend the Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway. Iron Mountain Rd was built by the WPA during the depression, and winds its way up the mountain to the Rushmore memorial over 4 wooden pigtail bridges and through 3 one-lane tunnels handcut through the rock. As you drive throught the tunnels, they frame Mt. Rushmore in their opening, either in front of you or behind you, depending on your direction of travel. Needles Highway winds through the Needles area of the Black Hills and part of Custer State Park. It passes by Sylvan Lake, a secluded lake surrounded by beautiful rock formations. Also, in the area, is a road throught the Badlands, another beautiful drive, especially on a summer evening.

And, of course, everyone should drive through the Rocky Mountain National Forest in Colorado, and up Pike’s Peak in Colorado Springs. While you’re in the Springs, take a stop at the Valley of the Gods. If you’re in Denver at the right time of year, you could catch a concert at the Red Rocks amphitheater, a natural rock amphitheater. Then cross the continental divide through one of the higher elevation passes, where even in summer you’re likely to see some snow.

Back when I was a student at the University of Iowa and my family was living in Seattle, I would make the drive in my 1965 Mustang coupe. Seattle to Iowa City and back over boring I-90 and I-80. It was an adventure I guess.

One spring break me and two buddies drove from Iowa City to Newark, NJ to hang out with one of my buddy’s friends and family. So I guess I’ve driven from coast to coast, though not all at once. I don’t regret one mile.

I remember a college road trip in June 1958 from Des Moines, Iowa, to Stratford, Connecticut, to deliver a guy’s mother’s 1948 Plymouth sedan back to her. So we had that and his orange 1951 Dodge pickup (well, we had to get back to Des Moines). Going east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike I got pulled over in the Plymouth for not slowing down to 35 for a tunnel. The trooper said “Yeah, we seen them old cahs of yours” but let me off with a warning. He had a plain-clothes car, yellow and gray ’57 Fairlane 2-door. Great trip – we rode the roller coaster at Palisades Park, had our first legal drinks at Maxl’s in White Plains (NY’s drinking age was 18), and saw lots of nice new Interstates as well as the old Turnpike.

I have a couple of back-road recommendations if you’re ever in Kitsap County – Lake Crescent Road north from Gig Harbor, then Olalla Valley Road to Lake Valley Road to Mayvolt Road, left on Locker Road, cross Hwy 160, right on Colchester drive, then go through Manchester and follow the main road along the water into Port Orchard. Cool roads, and interesting country.

Looks like your first picture might be from the Great Ocean Road, in southwest Victoria. It is a classic tourist road, built after WW1 by returned soldiers.

I have driven at different times all along the coast of Australia from Port Augusta SA to Bundaberg in Qld, the whole coast has a lot to offer. A great road trip I’ve done is around the Snowy Mountains from Cooma to Jindabyne, Thredbo and Tumut, the scenery is excellent and there is a lot to see. The roads are great too, a lot of car launches are held in the area.